Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
jambands.com review of “Weirdest”
Gans tackles the downturn of the working class, romantic bliss, organically-grown food, and resisting the haters in the name of God. What it lacks in strength, Gans’s voice makes up in a slightly grizzled been-there-seen-that wisdom. That aspect to his tone comes especially handy on “An American Family,†the opposite of the wide-eyed enthusiasm embraced on “Down to Eugene.” The song chronicles those still trying to find their way to the American Dream. While the majority of The Ones That Look… revel in a rootsy atmosphere, this is the closest to a jam track that expands the basic structure before making a soft landing and returning to the next verse. The acoustic sounds are also gently nudged in subtle electric directions with the lap steel and loping pace of “Headin’ Home Already, which gives the tune a New Riders of the Purple Sage feel. Likewise, the yearning “Autumn Day†bears influence from Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, with an Americana-meets-Los Lobos soundtrack.Read the review.
Bill Kreutzmann playing NYE on Maui!
Per this post on DeadNet, shows 12/29 and 12/31.
Tales from the Golden Road
In honor of the new Road Trips release, today’s Tales from the Golden Road is all about the Dead at Madison Square Garden. We’ll have Dan Levy, who wrote the liner notes, in the studio with us.
Give us a call at 888-897-4748 and tell us about your experiences seeing the Dead at MSG!
Tales from the Golden Road, 4-6pm Eastern on Sirius32/XM57, the Grateful Dead Channel.
Grateful Dead Hour no. 1055
Week of December 8, 2008
Part 1 25:13
Grateful Dead 6/22/74 Miami Jai-Alai Fronton
SUGAREE
THE RACE IS ON
IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES
Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy
WEREWOLVES OF LONDON
Boris Garcia, Once More Into the Bliss
THROUGH THE WINDOW
Part 2 31:12
Grateful Dead 6/22/74 Miami Jai-Alai Fronton
PLAYING IN THE BAND
The Grateful Dead Discography has an informative entry on Warren Zevon‘s great song “Werewolves of London.” I recently scored a copy of the expanded and remastered edition of Excitable Boy, so here it is on the radio show. (Another song from this CD, “Accidentally Like a Martyr,” turned up on a scrap of tape while I was working on the boxed set All Good Things: Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions – a short session, just the one song, with Jerry on electric piano, roadie/JGB manager Steve Parish on drums, and engineer-producer Bob Matthews on bass. It’s a sweet track, very low-key and tentative. It’s on disc 6, “previously unreleased outtakes, alternate versions and studio jams.”)
Boris Garcia is a band from the Philadelphia area that I’ve come to know and love in the last few years. One of the band’s three excellent songwriters, Bob Stirner, was in the Dead-influenced Philly band Living Earth for many years; you have made heard their CD on Relix back in the day. I crossed paths with Boris Garcia on the festival circuit and became a fan right away; my first (and toughest) criterion for appreciating a band is songwriting, and this band has three fine songwriters. As for the name, here’s what band member Gene Smith says about it in the band’s bio: “We were in the studio with a bunch of different guitarists. One of them was Tony Rice style, and the other was Flamenco/Middle Eastern. East meets West, and it was definitely odd, and Jeff [Otto] said, ‘This is weird. This is like Boris Garcia’s Family Reunion.'”
Boris Garcia are on a promotional tour of the West Coast. They will be performing live on my radio show Dead to the World Wednesday 12/10, 8-10pm Pacific. KPFA is at 94.1 fm in northern California, and you can listen online worldwide at kpfa.org, kfcf.org, or nugs.net.
P.S. I’ll claim some credit for putting Boris Garcia together with Tim Carbone, who produced the band’s new CD, Once More into the Bliss. Tim also produced my new CD, and of course his “day job” is playing fiddle and guitar in another of my favorite bands, Railroad Earth.
Support for the GD Hour comes this week from:
Reclaim Media.com, converting your cassettes and records to digital CD and MP3 files. More information on how to transfer your cassette tape and LP collection is available at reclaimmedia.com.
Grateful Dead Productions, announcing Road Trips volume 2 number 1, MSG September 90: two CDs and a bonus disc with great musical moments from the 7-man lineup with Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick on keyboards. More information, sample audio, and ordering link on the official web site, dead.net.